Prepare for Takeoff: Release Planning & Building A Team with AWAL's VP of Community, Phil Loutsis

#HowWeListen Live: In Conversation Podcast

The next conversation is with Phil Loutsis, the VP of the AWAL Community Team. His job revolves around release planning, securing editorial support, building a team & marketing your music. All extremely important when it comes to moving a music career forward. At AWAL, Phil focuses his energies on helping indie artists build their careers. Part of his role includes curating content to help creators and managers make the best use of their resources. He enables artists and their teams to better tell their stories. He wants you to think of digital distribution as the canvas for the campaign rather than a bolt-on service. Phil talks about how he went from recording and playing live in a band out of Sheffield, England to being one of the early hires at AWAL. Marc and Phil get into playlisting, how to work with DSPs (Digital Service Providers/streaming platforms) and some tips and tricks on getting a little more traction when you release new music. There is also advice offered up regarding paid marketing.

“From a delivery standpoint, having your cover art, your audio and your metadata nice and early is really important. Assets like photos for your marketing efforts should all be in a folder where everyone can easily access them from the get-go. Similarly, I’d be thinking about your video content very early too. It’s less of a concern getting your short-form videos out early as a lot of them like Instagram or TikToks are in real-time, but music videos and things like that can be done early. “

#HowWeListen Live: In Conversation

2:23 Phil’s band, AWAL

4:56 Getting “There”

7:00 Getting noticed

17:53 Byta.com

24:59 Huw Stephens on #HowWeListen Live

27:00 Mike Warner’s book Work Hard Playlist Hard

34:38 Bandcamp, merchandise focused

38:24 Junior Foster

39:37 LAUV album

41:36 Spotify daily uploads

49:41 Paid marketing

50:26 SubmitHub and PlaylistPush, B00ST.com

57:00 Collaboration, Mental health

1:04:00 Byta.com

Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu

Episode Credits:

Artwork by Jen Pmphrey

Hosted by Marc Brown

Series coordinated by Jamie Ford

Produced and edited by Colin MacKenzie

Music by Fin Productions and Oliver Lyu